Telling our veterans about the Employee Free Choice Act and John McCain's record

Had to say something, so I was reading through the NY Times article about how the AFL-CIO has launched a Veterans Vs. McCain website and when readin the comments I just had to chime in, from the NY Times, "Union Veterans’ Group Starts Ad Campaign Against McCain"
(7/11/08):

Wow, reading through I can see the paid for posts, yes that’s right, today’s Big Law firm fat cats pay people to post on major news sites spreading bull misinforming people about The Employee Free Choice Act, the one true good piece of legislation that will allow people, that’s right American working people, to decide if they want to be in a union by signing a card. If more than 50% sign they get a union. The current method allows these union avoidance law firms to swoop in and divide and conquer the work force in the interim before the vaunted “secret ballot” election, using any means necessary, whether legal or not, by the time the election is over they deal with the legalities. This is a multi-billion dollar industry. Union avoidance and busting, a bunch of lawyers who spread the misinformation, and terrorize workers in their business see the passage of The Employee Free Choice Act as a tremendous loss to their cash cow, when was the last time you saw a “non-profit” so adamantly oppose legislation under the guise of taking away our democracy, where obviously money is no object, creating and running TV ad’s at will, that takes BIG money, even bigger than the AFL launching this campaign. Don’t let the billion dollar lawyers tell you how to think. They have owned the NLRB for the past 8 years under the guidance of a Bush appointee, Robert Battista, who has thoroughly contracted the power of all workers and given even more power to multi-national corporations who are ruling our world. He has done such a good job that when his appointment as the chairman came up this year, he decided to refuse in order to join one of the biggest union busting law firms in the world, that’s a fact that Main Stream Media doesn’t speak about.

And yes, Mr.McCain, who would make us all pay for our own health insurance with taxed money, and feed us into the hands of the big insurance companies is not the choice for any American worker, union or otherwise.

He also opposed the new GI Bill. I have been writing about the new GI Bill for quite some time and was completely surprised that this maverick veteran, ex-pow, would allow our returning vets to not get the care they needed, to not get funding to higher education, to not get the mental health care they needed. While both Republicans and Democrats supported the GIBILL 2008, McCain threatened cloture, and Bush threatened Veto, until a few weeks ago. This bill will allow our returning veterans a chance to become workers, company owners, supervisors, and modern day heroes, not the Vietnam era bill that flooded our country with homeless returnees. McCain did not want this! Bush did not want this! The military industrial complex did not want this! We the American people wanted this!

As a labor writer, do I staunchly back Obama? absolutely not, I despise the current 2 party system, I despise the fact that MSM censored the candidates I would have easily voted for in favor of the ones they could control through campaign finance. But Obama has a better chance of helping working people here in our country, and is a little less of a world eating profiteer that the reagan/bush/clinton/bush travesty that has lead us to where we are today. Especially if we, as working American’s hold Obama accountable if lected, remember, if you have 1 term in office, you will want another.

We can change the world a bit if Obama is elected, we can not if McCain is.

All of you here are among the Americans who can read independent news on the internet, do it, don’t just read the NY Times(no offense Mr.Greenhouse, I read your stuff, and it has been heading in a much better direction lately), don’t just read USA Today, spread yourself out onto Mother Jones, The Man Common blog, Peoples Weekly World, UTNE Reader, Consumers Union, Corp Watch, the list goes on, see the social interests links on my site. We have many issues, if this country continues on its path of separatism, the powers that be will take it all away from our little satellite groups at a whim.

As far as unions destroying America’s workplace, keep thinking that way.

Did the unions allow our industry to go to Haiti, where the people eat dirt sandwiches and the ones who are lucky enough to work in the former US Made Levi’s factory make about $2 a week, yeah blame the unions for that, or the other place where they make Levi’s, Bangladesh, where even the school teachers and policemen have to wait on thousand people lines to get government subsidized rice because they are paid so poorly, or in Vietnam, home of sneakers that were made her, where workers work 12 hours a day and recently went on strike to make a whopping $62 a month, instead of their current $58.

Yeah, the unions killed American jobs, yep

Open your eyes.

Gotta run, going to attend a function of the Wounded Warriors Project, where my friend, a retired union Steamfitter, who, along with a retired Firefighter, sell shirts and help our severely wounded returning vets do things they wouldn’t think they were capable to do.

Today they are scuba diving, yeah, that’s right, guys and girls with no legs going scuba diving, and union workers help, not because we want to, because in our hearts, just like running down to the trade center site after 9/11, we have to.

Joe
Joe’s Union Review
http://joesunionreview.com

— Posted by JoeUnionReview

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Tell the next president, we want the right to be in a union without employer coercion

Lets give either Mr.Obama or Mr.McCain a message when they get into office, American families want the right to become union without anti-union coercion from employers, corporations and union avoidance law firms. Let's make sure that when the people who do vote to be collective bodies get recognized as negotiators of a contract, too many times employers use legalese to abstain from negotiations even after NLRB confirmed votes that win unions.

Dear Joseph, It’s all about strength in numbers: A million voices for the Employee Free Choice Act... and millions more union workers raising living standards for all of us. Sign the petition! Who’s losing out in this sputtering economy? Not corporate CEOs. Too many of them have made sure to secure a golden parachute for themselves, while workers face soaring health care costs, foreclosures and an uncertain future. The Employee Free Choice Act would help level the playing field and get our economy back on track. That’s why we’ve launched a huge campaign to get 1 million people to support this bill and tell Congress it’s time for change! Sign the petition—we’re already at 29,349 signatures! We need you to be one of them. The Employee Free Choice Act would give more workers the chance to negotiate for better benefits, wages and working conditions by forming unions. And that will help all of us. There’s strength in numbers, and as we build our collective muscle, we can raise living standards, improve health care and stop corporate America’s race to the bottom. But some CEOs try to stop unions, preventing their workers from negotiating a contract. In fact, 30 percent of corporations illegally fire pro-union workers during union organizing drives. Of course, no CEO would agree to work without a contract. So why can’t their workers have the same rights? It’s time to bring back some fairness. That’s why we need 1 million voices supporting the Employee Free Choice Act. But a million people is a LOT of people. We won’t reach our goal without YOUR friends and family. Do you support this bill? Take one minute to sign our petition. Upload a photo while you’re at it! Anti-union groups are mounting a campaign to fight this bill. We can’t match our opponents dollar for dollar, but we can prevail if enough people rally to this important cause. The economy should work for all of us, not just the privileged few. We can get there with your help. In solidarity, Working Families Network, AFL-CIO P.S. To learn more about the Employee Free Choice Act, click here.

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AFL-CIO Turn around America video contest, go and vote

It's time to vote in the AFL-CIO's Turn Around America video contest. From Mike Hall at the AFL-CIO Blog (6/16/08):

The 12 finalists in the AFL-CIO’s “Turn Around America Online Video Competition“ have been selected. Now you can pick the winner of the contest’s Our America Award.

The dozen finalists from around the country grabbed their cameras and harnessed their creativity to answer the question: How do we “Turn Around America” in this time of a failing health care system, stumbling economy, stagnant wages, disappearing jobs and an endless war? How do we go from the wrong track to the right direction?

Click here to see the entries of the 12 finalists and then cast your vote for the video that you believe best answered the question. Votes will be counted through 5 p.m. EDT on Thursday, June 19. All winners will be announced June 24.

Here's my choice
I can't believe it, it's me.

While there were many good ones, I couldn't pass this one up, it would get my attention.
From DogfishProductions

Heres the rest
go pick your favorite

Minneapolis, MN	Bloomfield Hills, MI	Saint Paul, MN
Montclair, VA	Boston, MA	Chicago, IL
Rodeo, CA	New Hyde Park, NY	North Hollywood, CA
Brandon, FL	Chicago, IL	Cincinnati, OH

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OR: John McCain's Health Care plan will make "you" pay tax on medical insurance. Workers threatened with arrest by McCain camp

Hey American worker, John McCain would rather see you arrested than speak to you.

More than 50 times American workers have been at fund raisers to confront John McCain on his anti-worker voting record and outrageous Health Care proposal, this past Monday is the first time the workers had an adjacent room just a few steps away, "making it possible for John McCain to walk only a few steps to meet with working folks."

John McCain's Health Care plan will make "you" pay tax on medical insurance

McCain’s health care proposals(PDF file), which are similar to President Bush’s failed policies, would tax employer-provided health care as income, increase costs to workers, leave workers at the mercy of insurance companies who could weed out people who need health care the most, make health care harder to obtain and lower the quality of available health care plans.'

Well heres the scoop on what happened when members of the Oregon State AFL-CIO tried to speak with McCain.

From the Oregon State AFL-CIO (5/15/08):

McCain Refuses to Meet with Oregon's Working and Women Monday Evening
Instead, Presidential hopeful spends evening with donors who can pay more for dinner than many working folks earn in a year

Oregon’s working men and women waited…and waited…and waited just steps away from Presidential hopeful Senator John McCain’s $33,100 per couple fundraiser Monday evening to tell their stories of health care crisis and struggle to the presumptive Republican nominee. But McCain never showed.

In fact, when Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain offered to approach his campaign team with one last polite, in-person request to see him Chamberlain was threatened with arrest.

“Senator McCain had an unprecedented opportunity today to show that he is as concerned about working folks as he is about his wealthy friends,” said Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain. “Instead he reaffirmed that he doesn’t share the priorities of working folks and he is not the candidate to turn around America.”

The event was attended by more than 20 working men and women and their children. One Oregonian who hoped to share her story with McCain was Nancy Cochran: “For someone who claims to be a straight talker, I feel like we got the run around,” said Cochran. “With his plan, we’re basically on our own. It feels like we’ve been forgotten. He wants us out of sight and out of mind.”

Cochran, a 51-year-old wife, mother and employee, says her family can’t even afford to use its employer provided health care because they can’t afford the twenty percent of medical care that that the insurance doesn’t pay.

Brandy Benedict, an emergency room nurse who also attended the event knows Cochran’s situation all too well.

I see people every day who work fulltime, work two jobs, who don’t have insurance, and even if they have insurance they can’t afford health care or prescriptions because their premiums and out-of-pocket costs are too high,” Benedict said. “Health insurance is expensive, and it is a luxury that is already out of reach for many individuals and families. Further shifting the cost burden from employers to workers, as the McCain health care proposal outlines, will increase the number of uninsured patients I see. There is a solution to our health care problems, but we will not find it in McCain’s plan.” (continued at site)

Do you want to pay tax on your medical insurance?

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Labor History 101: The United Association of Plumbers, Pipefitters

"the UA's commitment to training is unsurpassed among trade unions worldwide"

From the early days as the United Association of Journeymen Plumbers, Gas Fitters, Steam Fitters and Steam Fitters' Helpers of the United States and Canada, to what it is today, The United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada, or just the "UA", the United Association has had a long proud history, including from it's ranks, George Meany, the first president of the merged AFL-CIO, building and working in the shipyards during WW2, introducing the five year apprenticeship and being headquartered in the building that was originally built by Samuel Gompers in 1915-16 to serve as the AFL headquarters.

Today the United Association's motto is "We do it right the first time", and with their training and dedication to the modern innovations in the craft, the members in the field take it to heart, going out there and producing the highest quality work in the most productive fashion.



From the UA website:

About The UA

The United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada or "UA" as it is commonly known is a multi-craft union whose members are engaged in the fabrication, installation and servicing of piping systems. There are approximately 326,000 highly-skilled United Association members who belong to over 300 individual local unions across North America.

UA History

The birth of the United Association dates back to the year 1889, when a Boston plumber named P. J. Quinlan addressed a brief letter to Richard A. O'Brien, a plumber in Washington, D.C. "Dear Sir and Brother," the letter began, "I take the liberty of addressing a few lines to you to obtain your views as regards the formation of a United Brotherhood…"

The author of the letter would become the first General President and its recipient the first General Secretary-Treasurer of the United Association.

Prior to 1889, plumbers, steamfitters and gas fitters who were organized were members of independent local unions with either no affiliation, or affiliation with a variety of trades.

By 1889, however, with existing organizations declining or becoming devoted to only one craft, local union leaders began to consider other ways to unite national pipe trades journeymen to deal with mutual problems, including how to treat traveling members, build apprenticeship, and provide strike aid.

In response to these issues, the United Association was officially born on October 11, 1889. The original name of the organization was the United Association of Journeymen Plumbers, Gas Fitters, Steam Fitters and Steam Fitters' Helpers of the United States and Canada.

The Early 1900's

At the turn of the century, early UA leaders faced new challenges and were forced to make numerous controversial and revolutionary decisions. Among these was establishment of a mechanism that would allow UA members to travel to jobs throughout the United States and Canada. The clearance card system was created to enable unemployed journeymen in one locality to travel to work in another.

This "mobility" became especially important during the early 1900's, when the construction industry entered a period of tremendous expansion. From 1898 to 1914, the UA quadruped its membership.

During these years, under the leadership of General President John S. Kelley, steps were taken to strengthen the UA on a national basis. One of those was establishment of the stamp system of dues collection. This move dramatically improved the UA's financial stability and provided a means of compiling a reliable list of affiliated local unions and their membership.

Significant progress toward a sound, modern union came in 1902 in Omaha, Nebraska, when delegates to the UA convention approved a plan to provide a comprehensive system of sick, death and strike benefits.

The UA's nationalization efforts were further strengthened during the general presidency of John R. Alpine from 1906 to 1919. His term in office was marked by extraordinary executive skills that resulted in the implementation of many important reforms and changes in an atmosphere of harmony.

The Great Depression

During the first two decades of the 20th century, the UA moved boldly into the forefront of the American labor movement. Landmark accomplishments included the creation of a formal five-year apprenticeship program, the expansion of UA influence to include construction of industrial plants and public utilities, and a growth in membership to 60,000 by the year 1929.

Then disaster struck in the form of the Great Depression. With the stock market crash of 1929 and the failure of many banks, the U.S. and Canadian economies could not sustain the level of growth that had been experienced following World War I. As a result, construction came to a standstill, UA membership dropped to less than 35,000, and no conventions were held between 1928 and 1938.

The Depression took a heavy toll on the UA. Members who had worked all their lives suddenly found themselves without jobs, suffering economic deprivation and a loss of pride. Nevertheless, these years were marked by courage and sacrifice, with members helping members so that all might survive.

With the advent of the New Deal under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the UA went back to work. UA members throughout the United States and Canada undertook the extensive projects we now recognize as lasting monuments to perseverance in the face of adversity.

Through the Public Works Administration and the Works Progress Administration, the UA helped build the dams, roads, libraries, schools, public buildings and housing projects that are an enduring legacy to the craftsmanship of UA workers and other members of the building trades.

World War II

By 1941, UA membership had reached 81,000. That number soared to 210,000 during World War II. Thousands of UA members enlisted in the armed forces and served bravely in conflicts all over the world. Back home, UA members were put to work in shipyards, weapons plants, aircraft factories and other facilities. Some members also served in military construction units overseas.

During these years, the UA grew in both membership and prestige. Wartime construction contributed to this rise, but other events also enhanced the strength of the UA. One of those was the development of national agreements between the UA and large, national contractors. The landmark UA-NCA (National Constructors Association) National Construction Agreement was signed in 1941.

The post-war years were also marked by the rise of one of organized labor's most prominent leaders -- George Meany, the first president of the newly-formed merger of the two principal labor organizations (the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations) into the AFL-CIO. A plain-spoken man of great courage and dignity, he was perhaps the most influential figure in shaping the American labor movement from the mid-1950's until his death in 1980. George Meany was also a proud member of United Assocation Local 2 in New York City.

The ties between the UA and the AFL-CIO have always been strong. The UA became an affiliate of the American Federation of Labor in 1897, and the United Association General Office in Washington, D.C. was originally built by Samuel Gompers in 1915-16 to serve as AFL headquarters. Today, the UA is one of the strongest forces within the Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO.

A New Millennium Of Pride Through Excellence

In 1989, the UA proudly celebrated its 100th anniversary. As we move into the new century, the UA remains a strong, vital organization comprised of thousands of highly skilled men and women who have joined together for a common purpose. Today's UA members use their skills in commercial, industrial and residential arenas. Among the many projects on which UA members can be found are single-family homes, garden and high-rise apartment buildings, large and small office complexes, power plants, refineries and factories.

The pipe trades industry provides water supply, waste and sewage services, water treatment and sewage treatment systems. In addition, the UA's jurisdiction includes heating, air conditioning and refrigeration systems, along with automatic-sprinkler and fire-protection systems.

To ensure that there remains a steady supply of tradesmen skilled enough to meet the challenges of today's diverse and expanding construction industry, the UA has shaped a superb training program. In fact, the UA's commitment to training is unsurpassed among trade unions worldwide. The journeymen produced by this training program over the years are the backbone of the United Association.

From humble beginnings of 40 delegates representing 23 independent unions in 10 states and the District of Columbia, the United Association has grown to a powerful, international union representing over 300,000 members in more than 400 local unions throughout the United States and Canada.

The UA has been at the forefront of the fight for worker's rights for over 100 years. Now, as we move into a new millennium we are faced with many new and imposing obstacles. To prepare our membership for the rapid advancements in technology and the way business is conducted, the UA has developed one of the most extensive training programs of any union in the world, spending more than $1 million dollars a week ensuring that our members are prepared for the future.

I urge anyone interested in the history of Labor in the United States to check out Tim1965's writings and edits at Wikipedia and the website that notes itself as "Info and Ammo For Unionists", Big Labor, check out their "Today in labor history" section, links below.

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Politics, Labor, the SSP, oil, starvation, corporate greed

Excerpts from the RSS feed of The Man Common

• AFL-CIO: CEOs' Pay Packages Played Role In Mortgage Crisis (4/1408) - CNN/Money

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Labor union officials, who blame the nation's mortgage mess in part on runaway executive pay, are calling for Congress to adopt a "say on pay" bill that would let shareholders weigh in on CEO compensation.

Chief executives at Countrywide Financial (CFC) and Washington Mutual Inc. ( WM) were paid "obscene amounts" even when their company's performance faltered as subprime borrowers defaulted on home mortgage loans, AFL-CIO Secretary- Treasurer Richard Trumka said at a press briefing Monday. The bad loans devalued mortgage-backed securities tied to them, leading to large write-downs in assets at a number of financial firms..

Countrywide Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo, Washington Mutual CEO Kerry Killinger, former Bear Stearns Cos. (BSC) CEO James Cayne, and former Citigroup Inc. (C) CEO Charles Prince were among those rewarded lavishly for betting on risky loans, according to labor officials. Mozilo and Cayne are also chairmen.

"When the house of cards fell, they didn't pay for it, we did," said Trumka.

• Elections in America: Millionaires Accusing Each Other of Elitism (4/14/08) - AlterNet :

But is Barack Obama really an elitist as his opponents claim? Well of course he is -- he's running for president of the United States! He wouldn't have gotten this far in life if he'd spent the past 20 years driving a truck or moonlighting as a fry cook at Arby's. Like every other successful politician in the United States, Obama is a member of America's political ruling class, which means that like every other presidential candidate in recent memory, he is typically insulated from the lives of ordinary people. Does Obama really have any idea what it's like to live like a "Real American?" Of course he doesn't, and neither do John McCain and Hillary Clinton! Does any rational person out there believe that Obama, Clinton and McCain spend their free time away from the campaign trail hanging out at Jimmy Ray's Chicken'n'Beer Depot playing darts with the common folk?

In theory, this point should be fairly obvious. Even before getting elected, most politicians made a good deal of money in their careers as lawyers, doctors, actors or oil tycoons -- you know, real salt-of-the-earth sort of work. But for reasons that have long confounded sane people everywhere, our national millionaire press corps gives positive coverage to political candidates who are the most adept at lying about their ability to connect with regular folks. And because it apparently takes too much work for our press corps to sift through the candidates' policy positions to figure out what each of them is actually offering blue-collar voters, we don't even get rational assessments of politicians' working-class cred. Instead, we get piles and piles of anecdotal evidence.

• Three Amigos Summit (4/15/08) - Foreign Policy In Focus (FPIF) :

President George W. Bush will soon host what has become an annual “Three Amigos Summit.” The leaders of Mexico, the United States, and Canada will be gathering in New Orleans on April 21 and 22. What do you suppose is on the agenda? A rational response to immigration, perhaps? A thoughtful renegotiation of the unpopular North American Free Trade Agreement? Lessons from Canada’s affordable medicines program?

No. No. And no. Rather than putting their heads together around pressing issues such as these, the three leaders will be advancing a so-called Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP). And while that may sound well and good, this initiative, begun in 2005, is unlikely to produce either security or prosperity. That’s because the partnership is only with big business.

The chief executives of Wal-Mart, Chevron, and 28 other large corporations are in on the closed-door negotiations, while members of Congress, journalists, and ordinary citizens are excluded. And the secrecy is not just around the presidential summits, but also the meetings of about 20 SPP working groups that carry on negotiations over the course of the year.

What’s on the table? Not much is public, but we do know that the executive powers of the three countries are hammering out regulatory changes that they claim do not require legislative approval. And given who’s in the room, it’s a safe bet that these changes will favor narrow corporate interests over the public good.

• Global hunger, corporate greed: When will enough be enough? (4/16/08) - The Jakarta Post
  

Media around the world are currently feeding off the increasing price of food everywhere. The World Bank chief has joined in with the prediction that starvation is a distinct possibility for many of the weaker nations, leading to political turmoil.

The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) chief says only 14 percent of available water is used in Asia, 2 percent in Africa, with the rest flowing into the oceans each year. If this is the sorry state of affairs, what do our political leaders and their henchmen do at the office every day?

The instinctive urge to shoot the messenger is of course misdirected energy. But when you put the disparate pieces of our puzzling world on the table, the emerging picture is embarrassing indeed.

A kilogram of rice costs more than US$1 and a barrel of oil costs over $100. One influences the other. The subprime loan crisis will cost more than $1 trillion and the Iraq war will cost the United States alone as much as $3 trillion.

Different problem, same instinct. Many pundits will argue none of this has any connection to global hunger, as if these colossal costs aren't real and do not affect the common man.

It is all too easy to throw stones at our politicians and bureaucrats. But those of us in business would do well to spend a minute pondering the glass houses we go to work in.

The altar of the shareholder has become the convenient excuse for inexcusable conduct. The voracious appetite for dividends and stock prices has allowed CEOs to hold boards and investors alike to ransom.

Systemic deception has become acceptable culture in too many boardrooms, with nothing more than a wink and a nod required down the chain of command. When it gets to a point that an accountant is unable to explain complex new financial instruments and their equally befuddling acronyms, disaster cannot be far away.

Not even a decade ago, the Internet bubble exploded with disastrous consequences, ripples felt around the globe. Everybody who then believed the lessons were learned have been proven wrong not even a decade later. For every errant CEO who has gone to jail, there are hundreds who have made millions in severance pay alone. Regulators and lawmakers appear not to be troubled.

It seems as if the profit motive is no longer an adequate driver of business today. Unbridled greed has taken over, a global corporate culture spreading like a cancer unchecked.

• Big Tax Breaks for Businesses in Housing Bill (4/16/08) - NY Times

Washington - The Senate proclaimed a fierce bipartisan resolve two weeks ago to help American homeowners in danger of foreclosure. But while a bill that senators approved last week would take modest steps toward that goal, it would also provide billions of dollars in tax breaks - for automakers, airlines, alternative energy producers and other struggling industries, as well as home builders.

The tax provisions of the Foreclosure Prevention Act, which consumer groups and labor leaders say amount to government handouts to big business, show how the credit crisis, while rattling the housing and financial markets, has created beneficiaries in the power corridors of Washington.

It also shows how legislation with a populist imperative offers a chance for lobbyists to press their clients' interests.

This has proved especially true on the housing legislation, which many lawmakers and lobbyists view as one of the last opportunities before Congress grinds to a halt amid election-year politics.

In the Senate bill, the nation's biggest home builders, some now on the verge of bankruptcy, won a provision that would let them claim millions in tax refunds by charging their current losses against the huge profits they made three or four years ago. Other struggling industries would benefit from this provision.

"This is our biggest legislative effort since the Tax Reform Act of 1986," said Jerry M. Howard, chief executive of the National Association of Home Builders. Hundreds of the association's members flooded the district offices of representatives and senators while they were home for the spring recess last month.

Supporters of the bill, including Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana and the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, say it represents sound tax policy carefully focused to help stimulate the lagging economy. But the White House opposes the Senate bill, and Democratic leaders in the House not only have promised to provide more relief for individual homeowners, but have also dropped the corporate tax provisions from their version.

Downtrodden automakers - Ford and General Motors - were especially dogged in securing a tax break that would let them collect alternative minimum tax credits, also known as the A.M.T., that would otherwise be out of reach because they did not pay enough taxes in recent years to claim a rebate.

If the provision becomes law, it could mean checks up to $40 million for the car manufacturers, as long as the companies had made investments in plant or equipment in that amount.

A Ford spokesman, Mike Moran, said he was aware that Ford would benefit from the tax credit in the bill passed by the Senate. But Mr. Moran said that the credit applied to a range of industries, not just automakers. A General Motors spokesman could not be reached.

Domestic airlines and manufacturers other than automakers would be eligible to claim the A.M.T. break as well. One lobbyist said that the companies that had sought the tax breaks in meetings with lawmakers included Ford, General Motors, American Airlines, Northwest Airlines and Goodyear Tire and Rubber.

Companies could claim only one of the new tax breaks, which in all, are expected to cost $6 billion through 2018. The jockeying among industry groups, including Realtors, home builders and bankers, is certain to intensify in coming weeks as lawmakers move to reconcile the Senate bill with a more ambitious package of housing legislation now under way in the House.

• The End of the World as You Know It…and the Rise of the New Energy World Order (4/15/08) - TomDispatch.com

Take the food riots now spreading across the planet because the prices of staples are soaring, while stocks of basics are falling. In the last year, wheat (think flour) has risen by 130%, rice by 74%, soya by 87%, and corn by 31%, while there are now only eight to 12 weeks of cereal stocks left globally. Governments across the planetary map are shuddering. This is a fast growing horror story and, though the cry in the streets of Cairo and Port au Prince might be for bread, this, too, turns out to be a tale largely ruled by energy: Too many acres turned over to corn (and sugar cane) for the creation of biofuels; a historic drought in Australia and other climate-change-induced extremes of weather -- a result of the burning of fossil fuels -- that have affected crop yields; and many new middle-class consumers, in China and elsewhere, coming on line, with a growing desire for meat, the production of which is heavily petroleum based.

From resource wars to oil wars (the subjects of his last two books), Michael Klare, Tomdispatch's energy expert, has long been ahead of the curve when it came to ways in which our planet was being reshaped at the most basic level. Today, he offers Tomdispatch readers a peek into some of the key themes in his staggering new book, Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy. If you want to grasp the true shape of our shaky world, of where exactly we've been and where we might be going, this is a book not to be missed. It offers the profile-in-formation of a shape-shifting planet, a planet in transition and on a road to nowhere pretty. Check out as well the latest Tomdispatch brief video (produced by TD's Brett Story) -- in which Klare discusses key issues in his new book -- by clicking here. Tom

• Are Americans unusually stupid or is it something our president put in the water? (4/15/08) - TruthDig

By so unabashedly embracing the most glaringly failed U.S. president ever, McCain has surrendered the right to be considered an independent candidate, judged on his own merits and personal history. A vote for McCain is a vote for that rancid recipe mixing religious bigotry, imperial arrogance and corporate greed that he had stood against in the run-up to the 2000 presidential election when he challenged George W. Bush, but to which he now has capitulated.

Too harsh? Then consider just how tight the space is between the rocks of our failed Mideast policy and the hard place of our impending financial disaster. The sudden out-of-control spike in the cost of oil—the key short-term market variable, the specter that stokes inflation fear and limits moves to avoid recession—is not a natural disaster or in any realistic way the result of inefficiency in the use of energy. What more than doubled the price of petroleum in the short run was not that too many of us bought Hummers, but rather that the political stability of the region that contains the bulk of that oil was deliberately and recklessly roiled.

In the name of fighting the 9/11 terrorists, the Bush administration overthrew the one Arab government most adamantly opposed to the Saudi financiers of that son of their system, Osama bin Laden. Instead of confronting the royal leaders of a kingdom that supplied 15 of the 19 hijackers, we invaded a nation that supplied not a single one. While Bush overthrew Saddam Hussein, who had no ties to the hijackers, he embraced the leaders of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the only three nations in the world that had diplomatically recognized and supported the Taliban sponsors of al-Qaida.

Consider that historical marker at a time when the UAE and Saudi Arabia bankers are buying major positions in distressed U.S. financial and other key corporate institutions. I know, it all sounds too conspiratorial, like imagining that we might wake up from this national nightmare and discover that the CEO of Halliburton, who replaced Dick Cheney when the latter selected himself to be Bush’s vice president, now has his headquarters in Dubai, tucked safely into the obscenely oil-revenue-rich UAE that our troops were sent to Iraq to protect.

There is no national outrage, or even seriously sustained media interest, over the fact that Cheney’s old company profited enormously from ripping off U.S. tax dollars going into the Iraq occupation. Nor is there even much curiosity about the shenanigans of Halliburton, which is doing business with Arab oil sheiks at a time when the U.S. banks these Middle Eastern oil interests bought into are moving to foreclose on American homeowners.

It’s just the sort of egregious betrayal of the trust of the taxpayers that Sen. McCain would have gone after, before he sought to don the soiled robes of the Bush presidency.

• Biofuel: the burning question (4/15/08) - The Independent

Graham Wynne, chief executive of the RSPB, said: "The volume of biofuel that can be genuinely described as sustainable is at present very small indeed and is nowhere near enough to warrant the 2.5 per cent obligation. The impacts of biofuel production on forests and wetlands are already being seen worldwide. It is a tragedy that customers' money is going to be spent on driving this destruction."

The World Bank and the UN have, in recent days, expressed concern about the impact of biofuels on world food prices, sparking riots from Haiti to the Philippines. Gordon Brown, who has put the issue on the agenda at the forthcoming G8 summit, has also voiced concerns at EU level about deforestation and loss of habitats caused by biofuel production. And Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, raised the issue at the weekend's G7 meeting in Washington.

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CA: LA Labor Federation poised for April 15th. march from Hollywood to the Docks

"All along the route marchers will be talking the talk by walking the walk, talking to all of L.A. about the fight for middle class jobs, the battle to organize workers and the importance of voting in order to win the 2008 Fight for Good Jobs."

This is huge, From the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO:

The March from Hollywood to the Docks

350,000 Workers Fighting for Good Jobs in 2008

20,000 longshore workers fighting for good jobs	8,000 janitors fighting for good jobs	58,000 actors fighting for good jobs

The March from “Hollywood to the Docks”

On April 15th to the 17th, actors, janitors, longshore workers, and many other workers along with members of the community will march 28 miles from Hollywood to the docks of San Pedro. These individuals will symbolize over 350,000 workers who, this year, will be fighting to stay in the middle class or move themselves out of poverty.

All along the route marchers will be talking the talk by walking the walk, talking to all of L.A. about the fight for middle class jobs, the battle to organize workers and the importance of voting in order to win the 2008 Fight for Good Jobs. Marchers will also be talking with voters about the issues facing the L.A. County Board of Supervisors Second District.

Read more

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AFL-CIO Invites McCain To Its Roundtables

From The Atlantic.com (4/01/08)

The AFL-CIO has issued an "invitation" to John McCain, asking him to attend one of their worker roundtables that just happen to coincide with his Service To America tour. The first roundtable takes place tomorrow in Annapolis, just after McCain is scheduled to finish speaking at Army-Navy stadium there. Additional roundtables are scheduled for Jacksonville on Thursday and for Prescott, AZ on Saturday.

This isn't a friendly invite, of course, but is a preview of the way the AFL-CIO will bracket McCain's campaign tours throughout the country through the fall.

Found via Omaha Steve's postings at Democratic Underground

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Boston Verizon union members proactive in upcoming negotiations.

Update To-> Boston: Stand with IBEW and CWA on March 13th in a practice picket against Verizon

Verizon workers have been proactive in their road to contract negotiations in the coming months, I admire their campaign. Heres some updates and views from their March 13th. practice picketing. From IBEW Local 2222: